Luke Perry practiced what he preached — and in this case it may have saved his life.

The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star, 50, underwent a colonoscopy in 2015 after teaming up with Fight Colorectal Cancer‘s “One Million Strong” campaign, which encourages people to get screened for the disease.

Perry’s test revealed precancerous growths, which he then had removed, according to Fox News.

“Right now, there are 23 million Americans who haven’t been screened who need to be screened,” Perry told Fox. “If I had waited, it could have been a whole different scenario.”

RELATED VIDEO: Sheryl Crow Talks Breast Cancer Prevention

Perry, who currently stars on The CW’s Riverdale, first got involved with Fight Colorectal Cancer after losing a friend to the disease, and witnessing his childhood friend Chad Schrack’s wife survive colorectal cancer.

“I can’t imagine anything Chad would ask me to do that I wouldn’t help him with, so I was happy to jump in and help,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “Once I found out what the numbers were about this cancer — about how detectable it is, and how lethal it is if you don’t detect it — it boggled my mind.”

“I want people to be proactive about their health and get information,” he said. “So many people could save a life if they just go and have a colonoscopy, but you’ve got to do something about that.”